From someone that doesn't like coach. - Geoff Ketchum

There's been a lot of discussion in the last 18-24 hours about what happened in the pursuit of Sterlin Gilbert that caused it to be on and off and on again.

Because this discussion has caused a mini-uproar, I thought I'd share some thoughts at the risk of getting caught up in the wrath of those with predetermined thoughts, or worse, agendas. I believe that Charlie Strong has been a failure in his first two seasons as a coach, but some of the narrative that currently exists, is hard to swallow and it's a bit unfair.

Don't get me wrong, I think there were some real tactical errors created in the process and if I were to describe the overall failure through mid-day on Friday, I'd call it a complete team failure because I think there are pieces that a lot of different parties can own.

Ok, here are my thoughts...

1. I believe more than any media outlet covering this story, we had more better and more varied sources. I don't know that we would have ever believed that we'd be as wired into the Tulsa side of this story as we ended up being, but it has been a big part of our ability to tell a global narrative in this situation.

I bring this up because what we've heard from the Tulsa side of this story is simply different than the narrative that's being said on the Texas side.

2. Our sources on the Tulsa side of this mentioned numerous issues that details needed to be worked out, but the issue of Charlie butchering contract negotiations wasn't part of the deal.

For instance, if we look at Thursday, our sourcing confirmed that Gilbert thought they had what amounted to an agreement in spirit and wasn't happy that Terry Franklin interviewed on Thursday, an event that turned out to be an annoyance and I think Charlie mishandled that because it just didn't need to happen.

There was also displeasure about one particular leak they believe existed on the Texas end that was releasing that it was a "done" deal when there were still contract particulars to work out (no final agreement had been finished. When Gilbert went home that night, his frustrations were based on multiple things, but he wanted the job, and wheeling and dealing with Charlie wasn't an issue.

In fact, it was kind of out of Charlie's hands by late Thursday and into the hands of the person's hands who is supposed to handle contract specifics with Gilbert's lawyer/agent. I'm told that person is Arthur Johnson.

3. Charlie Strong's wheeling and dealing was very limited in this deal and in my mind it's absurd to think that negotiating contracts would be left into the hands of someone who is completely unprepared to walk into a room and bounce contract numbers around with an actual sports agent.

Imagine for a moment a world where Les Miles is discussing dollars with Jimmy Sexton. It just doesn't happen like this, although I would pay money to see this as a reality show.

4. I can't stress enough that there were issues involving the OL coach, a little bit of the sideshow of everything, the Franklin interview, the leak at 5:50pm on Thursday night... the money part just hasn't been brought up much at all on the Tulsa side. These other things? Hell yeah.

5. Charlie Strong has hooked up every coach that has worked for him in the last two years with the best contracts of their lives, perhaps the best they'll ever come close to knowing, and people think he "low-balled" the most important hire of his life? No part of his history suggests that he's into limiting the money spent on his staff. Ask yourself, why would he care? Why would he risk this critical hire? It just doesn't add up at all.

His history suggests that he was much more likely to inflate the cost if in a position to do so than the other way.

6. Ultimately, the bringing his OL coach with him was a big deal and there was a major hesitation there that was truthfully a bigger issue than dollars. Same with trusting that this wasn't Gilbert stepping into a potential disaster decision and being unemployed and going backwards in his profession if there weren't an expressed commitment from higher-ups that coaching Charlie isn't the Titantic.

What was done by the AD and president could have been done with Cumbie on Tuesday or Wednesday if the urgency from Friday had existed earlier. It might not have mattered with Cumbie at the end of the day, but real support from the admin arrived on Friday and not much earlier than that.

7. If I'm wrong and our sources are wrong about Charlie's involvement in negotiating, then let me ask this question...

Who in the hell thought it would be a good idea to let a coach that doesn't do analytics at all and doesn't seem to care much about math in general (counting running backs touches, as an example) walk into the role of negotiator with an agent?

In fact, that's such a bad idea in theory that anyone who signed off on that is much more responsible than Charlie. That's like asking my daughter to drive the car and then assigning them the blame after the car is crashed.

Look, if Texas wants to fire Charlie Strong, just do it. There's a million legit reasons to have concerns about his previous decision-making and how it will impact future decision-making?

But, this Charlie The Pawn Shop Negotiator thing just doesn't pass the smell test